Budget Build Twin Turbo LT1

[hoppin5478]

On to the next piece of bad news, on the first picture it's hard to see but it had clearly been repaired at the bottom where they all rust because of GM's poor design and water getting between the double wall steel. It looked ok but I don't want to repaint this thing again in a year so I dug in a little and sure enough the original repair didn't get the majority of the rust. I think I'm just gonna buy lower replacement sheet metal and cut out what I need, the bottom was tweaked a little from someone jacking it up wrong anyway. Does anyone know a good method to prevent this from happening again on the new metal? Maybe seal the back with urethane?

It needs to have more cut out but here is where I am at.

I also welded up the holes that someone put for body side mouldings.

 

[hoppin5478]

And lastly you for all you body guys out there check out my old school Milwaukee buffer. I love this thing, solid steel and heavy enough that it effortlessly glides over flat surfaces when I'm buffing. I also love the 3m stripping disc that I have on there, it rips paint off quickly and doesn't damage the metal.

 

[hoppin5478]

I got the bottom of the fender patched up today and started some small body work/epoxy primed the fender to prevent rust. I need to get a tank for my welder so I used flux core in my other welder. It was a real pain in the rear, it's just to hot and there isn't small enough diameter wire so I'm gonna wait on any other metal repairs until I get a tank. I wound up causing myself extra work because I overheated the metal and had some minor warping. I knew better but got impatient...

 

[hoppin5478]

Bodywork is bittersweet for me. Sometimes I get lucky and there are no hidden surprises and sometimes the further I dig the more interesting it gets. Most of the front end is pretty close to being ready for paint but I'm stuck on the driver's fender. The closer I look at it the more I want to take a chance on one of the AMD repop's as AMD seems to get the best feedback. My original fender has more rust than I thought which isn't that big of a deal but as I started digging it's been hit relatively hard. Lot's of bondo on it and the front nose is crunched. It didn't fit exceptionally well to begin with so I'm thinking it may be worth taking a chance. I'm so close, I just need to get some paint on a few parts and I'll be back at it in full force.

 

[hoppin5478]

On a side note my kids were digging through some old photos laughing at me and found a couple of my first car, a 79 Camaro. I didn't remember it being this rough but time has a funny way of making those things fade. Here it is about a year after I got it. It was brown but my dad repainted it for me.

 

[hoppin5478]

It's been a while but making a lot of progress although it doesn't feel like it. I'm starting to think that maybe a school auto shop worked on this thing at some point. I've never had to remove so much body filler off of straight panels. The hood and fenders all had up to 1/4 in filler in spots where there wasn't damage and some of it had surface rust that's been sealed under there for at least 25 years. In fact 3/4 or more of the hood had filler on it and it only has 2 small dings near the nose and someone drilled a hole by the scoop but it looks like it have a non factory scoop glassed on at some point.

Progress wise, both fenders are stripped and epoxied, cut and welded patch panels anywhere there was rust, welded the side moulding holes and did the majority of the body work, they just need a coat of sandable primer and they should be ready. The hood is stripped and epoxied, I need to fix the 2 dimples at the nose and weld the hole and I should be in good shape.

I painted one of the lower fender sections today, mostly for motivation but I also wanted to make sure the color is what I want and see how the SPI clear sprays. Super happy with the color (TCP Global Viper Yellow) and clear. Here's a couple picks you can even see the clouds in the reflections. Awesome shine and depth, virtually no orange peel and sprayed really easily. Unfortunately it was windy and some crud got in the paint.

 

[Da-bigguy]

That color looks sharp!

 

[hoppin5478]

That color looks sharp!

Thank you. I'm really happy with it, hoping that it really pops against all the black trim.

 

[hoppin5478]

Steadily working my way through it. After at least 30 hours work on the front sheet metal I painted it all today. I'm happy overall but disappointed I ran the clear on the drivers fender. Nothing a little color sanding can't fix. The SPI clear lays down really nice but I caught it in some bad lighting, was exhausted and pushed the envelope to far. Hopefully my new hood hinges will be here this week and I'll start re-assembling the front end. The plan is to get the front put back together so it's driveable, finish stripping the rear half and complete the body work. Primer seal, spray sandable primer and block it and take it to my brothers to finish spraying the body. It was a ton of work and I'm glad I did it in sections. I had over 4 hours invested in just spraying the front sheet metal and cowl today. The color looks awesome (in my opinion) but I had to lay down 5 coats of base to get it to cover properly, I had the same problem last time I used the restoration shop base, it just doesn't cover that well. Here are some pics of the finished product.

 

[Da-bigguy]

That will really make your car stand out when you get her finished and all back together again!